Bearings & bushings are widely used in many mechanical applications and require routine maintenance and/or replacement to prevent failure and to keep the mechanisms operating at optimum levels of performance. Although we have been using these anti-friction bearings and bushings for many years the maintenance and normal wear and tear present certain problems due to the size and space restrictions placed on them by engineering standards and design limitations from different manufactures on the mechanical devices and machinery they design that use bearings and bushings. Assembled bearings and/or bushings are typically pressed into a machined bore or recess, or onto the outside diameter of a shaft. The removal of the bearing, bushing, or gear, etc is determined by present day pullers and extractors designed to grip the inner race of a bearing or inside diameter of a bushing with puller jaws, split or blind hole collets, or special jaws that grip the inside bearing raceways on the inner race and outer race where the balls rotate. A pressure screw or slide hammer with a threaded rod is used as the force to remove the bearing etc. Bearings and gears mounted on shaft outside diameters are also removed by means of jaw type pullers or split collet pullers that rely on either a threaded t-bar, threaded flange or disc or slide hammer type pullers. Due to the design of these pullers the assembled puller may be out of alignment with the central axis of the bearing, bushing, or gear etc that is being removed due to the fact that the t-bar design may easily be installed inefficiently if the bolts threaded into the bearing separator or collet are not drawn down evenly and the t-bar or flange will be at an angle to the central axis of the bearing mount or bore. This will introduce excessive friction and resistance to the bearing being removed and may damage the component the bearing is being removed from. Another problem with theses designs is that they take much room to be assembled to the bearings or bushings etc and sometimes there is very limited room to work. There are no designs that will allow quick and secure assembly and at the same time offer the self aligning characteristics of my invention as well as the fact that my invention will fit in much closer and tighter spaces easily without the need for typical puller arms that require extra room to be installed and function.
There are other pullers on the market and most of them use puller jaws to grip the bearing or bushing being removed. Some examples would be your standard Snap-On CG253 3 jaw puller, the Snap-On CJ82B bar type puller. Proto brand J4036 jaw type puller shares much of the same design features as the Snap-On puller. Another type puller such as the one outlined in U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,661 is a split sleeve puller that requires another outer sleeve to hold it together during operation and also this design does not have wrench flats to assist with holding the work from rotating during operation.
The removal of the bearing, bushing, or gear, etc is determined by present day pullers and extractors designed to grip the inner race of a bearing or inside diameter of a bushing with puller jaws, split or blind hole collets, or special jaws that grip the inside bearing raceways on the inner race and outer race where the balls rotate. A pressure screw or slide hammer with a threaded rod is used as the force to remove the bearing etc. The referenced jaw type, bar type, and split sleeve pullers all have a pressure screw that creates friction may also create undue wear on the component it is applied against since there is no provision for a thrust bearing. The end of the pressure screw has a pointed or flat adapter that presses against the bearing shaft. The adapter then is fit into the end of the pressure screw and may allow the pressure screw to rotate while the adapter is stationary but this method creates undue friction and stress since there are no anti-friction bearings involved. Another problem with the jaw and bar type pullers is that they require a large clearance area around the bearing and surrounding assembly.